Full Moon on the Quad
by StreetShark
Summary: Ryan wasn't sure how he ended up kissing a strange boy in the Quad at midnight, or how they ended up in class together the next day. [Written for Blink Week!]
1. Chapter 1

**Full Moon on the Quad**

**Disclaimer**: We own nothing of Newsies, and any resemblance to actual people is purely coincidental.

* * *

"Shit. What have I gotten myself into?" Ryan Ballatt closed his eyes and silently willed the ground to stop moving. When he opened them, though, he was none to pleased to find that nothing had changed. And if anything, it seemed like the masses of freshmen around him were even drunker than they were before. 

He didn't think that when his parents dropped him off four days earlier they pictured this as being part of his Stanford University education. But one of the first things Ryan heard about when New Student Orientation began was that the first day of school also happened to be the first full moon of the quarter. And as per the annual Stanford tradition, that could only mean one thing: Full Moon on the Quad.

It didn't sound like such a bad idea when a smiling R.A. explained it during an orientation info session: freshmen weren't considered true Stanford students unless they kissed a senior at midnight in the quad on the first full moon of the quarter. Two days ago, making out with hot senior girls didn't sound half bad. But even with a couple of beers behind him (more than he had ever drunk in high school, of course) Full Moon on the Quad was a lot more awkward than he anticipated.

"Hey, dude, whassup?" slurred a kid behind Ryan, slapping him on the shoulder. Ryan recognized the kid—Michael, maybe?—from his dorm. Of course, when Ryan had seen him the hall earlier, he had been wearing a blue polo shirt with popped collar. Now, the kid was shirtless--probably just to show off his abs for anybody who was interested.

"Isn't this great, man? College is freaking awesome!" Michael shouted.

"Yeah, man. Awesome," Ryan responded weakly. He glanced at Michael and noticed that he was gazing intently somewhere behind Ryan's left shoulder. Ryan turned and found himself staring face-to-face with an overly-made up blond in a tiara.

"Hey," she said, staring at Michael. "You a senior?"

"For you I am," Michael grinned.

"Okay, um, see you man!" Ryan said, probably a little louder than was actually necessary. Michael was too occupied to notice, though. Ryan turned and walked away as quickly as he could, towards a less mobbed part of the quad.

At the edge of the quad, Ryan could observe what was going on a little more clearly. If he stepped onto one of the stone planters, he could probably even locate Michael and that girl among the crush… Ryan shakily stepped backwards, rammed into something solid, and started to trip over his own feet. He could feel himself losing balance when someone grabbed his shoulder to steady him.

"Hey, easy there! You okay?"

Ryan focused his vision and looked up into a pair of concerned brown eyes. His rescuer was a tall, tanned guy with sandy brown hair, definitely nobody that Ryan knew. He felt a blush creep across his cheeks. Probably due to the alcohol.

Ryan paused. "Yeah, I'm fine. Uh, thanks." Ryan had to shout to be heard. He noticed that this guy was still holding onto his shoulder.

"No problem. So, are you a freshman?" he replied.

"Uh, yeah. But…" Ryan trailed off. He barely had time to register his confusion before the other boy grinned and leaned forward.

Ryan wasn't quite sure how he'd ended up kissing a strange boy in the middle of the crowd, in front of a building where he was pretty sure he'd had math lecture earlier that day. But in addition to his surprise, Ryan was able to detect how soft those lips felt on his, and the urgency with which the other boy deepened the kiss and pushed his tongue past Ryan's lips.

The boy finally pulled away and flashed a grin at Ryan. Ryan watched, frozen to the spot, as he turned and vanished into the crowd. Behind the spot where the other boy had stood, Ryan noticed a poster that spelled out "Queer Moon on the Quad" in silver paint. So that explained why the guy had kissed him. In fact, as Ryan looked around, he noticed several same-sex couples kissing on this part of the quad. What it didn't explain, though, was why Ryan was feeling so unfazed after kissing a guy. Must be what happens when you drink, he thought. After all, Ryan knew people did all kinds of things while drunk at college that they would never otherwise consider. Kissing another guy hardly seemed like a big deal.

Ryan broke his gaze from the spot where the other boy had disappeared to check his watch. 1:15. Shit, and he had to make a chem lecture at nine tomorrow, hung over or not.

He turned from the quad and stumbled back to his dorm. Ryan was pretty relived that he remembered the way home.


	2. Chapter 2

The next day, Ryan was so grateful that he wasn't hung over that he actually enjoyed chem lecture. And he had always been good at science, so he felt like this was going to be a good class—even if it was at an excruciating time. But what he was really dreading was his 10 a.m. Introduction to the Humanities course, a freshman requirement. Two hours of lecture plus three hours of discussion section a week was just cruel—but fuzzy English majors and techie-science kids like him all had to endure it nonetheless.

Ryan's Humanities lecture was packed, and since he'd had chem on the other side of campus and ended up arriving just before class started, he had to sit on a step in the aisle.

"Don't worry about the crowding, we're already in the process of having the class moved to a larger lecture hall," began the professor while T.A.s distributed syllabi.

"Don't bother. After today, half the class will be skipping lecture regularly, anyway," muttered a short kid next to Ryan.

Ryan smiled. Maybe this class wouldn't be so painful after all.

Of course, as luck would have it, it soon became clear that he couldn't have been more wrong. Ryan had discussion section right after lecture and when he walked into the seminar room he plopped down in the first chair he saw. He was leaning down to pull a notebook and pen out of his backpack when he heard a voice that sounded sort of familiar. Ryan looked up and there, across the seminar table, was the boy with the sandy brown hair he'd made out with at Full Moon. Ryan gaped.

Crap, the kid completely saw Ryan staring at him. Ryan looked away, then glanced back. The kid was shooting him a dazzling, friendly smile. Ryan nodded quickly in greeting, then stared down at his notebook. Ugh, there were dozens of discussion sections for the entire freshman class; what was this kid doing in his?

Wait, and hadn't he said he was a senior? Or implied it, anyway. Well, there was really no point in being weird and awkward around this kid all quarter. After all, they had to spend a lot of time talking about _The Aeneid_ and stuff together. Ryan decided he might as well be friendly—after all, it was just one stupid, drunken, accidental kiss. Everyone made out with lots of random people at Full Moon, and it wasn't like Ryan even _liked_ boys, or anything. Whatever, he'd just be cool. Yeah.

When the T.A. came in, she asked everyone to go around the room and introduce themselves. Ryan sat up. Now he'd even learn something about this kid.

"Hey, I'm Jack. Jack Kelly," the kid introduced himself, looking perfectly casual and confident. "I'm from New York, and my dorm is Branner." A kid across the table—who had introduced himself as Sean and who was the same short kid Ryan had noticed in lecture—cheered. Jack smiled.

Hm. Interesting.

Ryan made it through the class without imploding, even though he kept accidentally making eye contact with Jack, who seemed completely unfazed and, frustratingly, nowhere near as awkward as Ryan felt. And, Ryan kept thinking about the kiss and how it wasn't nearly as gross or weird as it should have been. By the end of section, he had worked up the courage to say something to Jack. Not like it was a big deal, or anything. And maybe Jack didn't even remember.

When class ended, Ryan packed up his stuff and waited outside the door for Jack to come out. When he saw Jack though, Ryan's face fell.

"So you're a gymnast, huh? I think I saw your picture somewhere, weren't you almost an Olympic qualifier or something?" Jack was telling some girl from section, smiling at her way too flirtatiously and not noticing Ryan at all.

"Oh, yeah, I was like, ninth; it's not that big a deal," the girl demurred, flipping her hair behind her shoulder. Ryan rolled his eyes.

"No, that's awesome!" Jack grinned, way too similarly to how he had smiled at Ryan the night before. "Want to grab some lunch?"

"Sure!" the girl replied brightly as they walked off.

Whatever, Ryan thought, as he walked off towards his dorm. Just as well, really. Weird, though, that Jack looked like he was interested in that girl, since he had obviously been plenty interested in making out with guys the night before.

Though of course, Ryan had kissed a guy too—but that had been an accidental, one-time thing. He liked girls. He went out with girls. Okay, so he went out with _a_ girl, but still. And okay, so that was just his friend Sophie on prom night, but still, that was a date. And he _had_ made out with her at the after-party at his friend Kyle's house. And it was perfectly reasonable for him to have declined her totally blatant implications that she wanted to do something more—after all, it would have been weird, they'd been friends forever. Just like it had been perfectly reasonable that he hadn't wanted her to be his girlfriend after the prom—they were about to graduate and go to different schools, and there was no point in starting something that would have to end so quickly.

But whatever. The point was, Ryan liked girls.


	3. Chapter 3

Ryan decided not to dwell on Jack Kelly, and he enjoyed his other classes and getting to know people in his dorm. He mostly hung out with Michael and a group of people from his hall, and Ryan decided he liked college. No nagging parents, freedom to do pretty much whatever he wanted (so long as it wouldn't get him kicked out of school, of course), and living with a built-in set of friends. Classes could be tough—multi-variable calculus looked like it was going to be killer—and there was a lot of work, but Ryan thought he'd be able to handle it. Yeah, college life was good.

On Thursday, Ryan biked to class so he could get from chem to Humanities faster. Ryan arrived in lecture a couple minutes early and sat down in an empty row near the back of the room. He doubted that half the class would already be ditching lecture, like that Sean kid seemed to think.

"Hey," someone said, sliding into the seat next to Ryan. Ryan looked up, startled: and then there was Jack Kelly.

"I'm Jack. From section. And…you know," he shot Ryan that same dazzling (no, not dazzling, Ryan didn't think of boys as dazzling. Ridiculous. Yes, totally ridiculous) smile.

"Oh, yeah, hey!" Ryan grinned back—he couldn't help it. "Oh, and I'm Ryan."

"Don't worry, I remember," Jack replied easily. "So are you totally excited to learn all about Socrates?"

"Oh yeah, Socrates is my life," Ryan laughed.

"Mine, too, for sure," Jack replied mock-seriously. He leaned towards Ryan, "But you know, the sad thing is, Socrates probably _is _Professor McGowan's life."

Ryan laughed. "Totally. You know whenever he's got a problem, he's completely like, 'Hmm, what would Socrates do?'"

Jack laughed, then lowered his voice conspiratorially. "Tell you the truth, I think Socrates is a nut-job. I mean, he's put on trial and when he's supposed to defend himself, he just insults everyone in the court. And then, when he has an easy chance to escape and avoid execution, he says he can't do it because the Laws talk to him and are telling him he can't ruin himself by being hypocritical like that? I mean, come on!"

"Well, why don't you try telling that to Professor McGowan, I'm sure he'd love to discuss that with you in office hours" Ryan grinned.

Jack laughed and leaned back. "Yeah, well maybe we can talk about it in section later."

Ryan smiled. Yeah, college was definitely awesome.

Over the next few weeks, Ryan made a point of rushing out of chem lecture in time to get a seat next to Jack in Humanities class. And whenever he arrived too early, flushed from a breakneck bike ride and forced to sit alone and wait for everyone else to trickle in, he was pleased to notice that Jack sat down next to him. Even though he spent way more time hanging out with the guys from his dorm, Ryan considered Jack a good friend, and the time they spent talking and joking through lecture made Humanities a hell of a lot more bearable.


	4. Chapter 4

Ryan glared at his reflection in the mirror, and decided that there was a reason guys weren't supposed to wear flowy, puffy shirts or giant gold hoop earrings. It was the night of his first real college party, the Halloween party, and he felt pretty stupid looking as he put on his pirate costume. His roommate, Tony, had decided to go to the party "as a giant tool," and had asked to borrow some of Ryan's clothes. Ryan wasn't sure exactly how he was supposed to interpret that, but he guessed that his costume efforts were a little much. In the end, he sighed, and decided to just go with it. He slipped on a bandana and an eye patch and headed out of his room, where Michael was waiting for him to walk to campus's party dorm, Branner.

* * *

"Oh my god! How are you!"

Ryan couldn't believe it. Two steps through the door and already Michael had been accosted by the same blond girl from Full Moon on the Quad, this time followed by an equally hyper friend. Both girls sported tank tops, angel wings, and ridiculous amounts of body glitter, and both seemed elated to see Michael arrive. What was so great about Michael anyway? Ryan glanced over at his friend, whose costume consisted of boots, plastic yellow fireman's pants, and suspenders over his bare chest. Oh. Right.

Ryan turned to survey the scene, and watched Michael and the girls head over to the dance floor. Loud music pumping, couples grinding, and what looked like a game of beer pong going on in the next room. It actually looked like it could be sort of fun to just go crazy and enjoy himself, like everyone else seemed to be doing. If only he could relax a little bit… He wandered over towards the room where a bunch of guys were starting a new game of beer pong, and grabbed a red, plastic cup of beer from a table in the corner. He downed about half before he heard his name and glanced up suddenly, sloshing beer onto his chest.

"Hey Ryan, buddy, come on and play with us!" Sean's voice was distinctive even though Ryan was pretty sure a couple of his words were slurring. Ryan made his way through the crowd over to where Sean was standing, leaning against a pool table.

"You've gotta play, Ryan, come on… I bet you're a natural." Sean made every effort to play it cool, but Ryan could tell that he was leaning menacingly over the table as much for support as to make himself seem more imposing. What the hell, one game couldn't hurt. And if he made a fool of himself, Sean hardly seemed to be in a state to notice.

"Uh, sure. How do you play, exactly?"

* * *

Forty minutes later, Ryan still wasn't sure exactly how one went about playing beer pong. All he knew was that for him, it involved throwing a ping-pong ball hopelessly far from a cup of beer, and being forced to chug his drink. He was starting to feel pretty out of it. And he thought he had lost his eye patch. Probably some fresh air would help. Yeah, that was definitely a good idea. Ryan made for the nearest door, and pushed it open unsteadily. The cool air swept over his face as Ryan took a few steps into the deserted courtyard outside the dorm. The throbbing beat of the speaker system was reduced to a dull thud from the outside, and, relieved, Ryan collapsed onto a bench and leaned his head back towards the sky, hoping to rest a little before heading home.

"Nice night for stargazing, huh Ryan?"

Ryan jerked his head around to see where the voice was coming from. Directly behind him, Jack stood staring upwards at the sky. Even in a cowboy hat and boots, he looked effortlessly cool. He smiled and sat down next to Ryan on the bench. "Thanks for coming to our party," Jack added. Ryan didn't say anything back, and Jack just stared at him for a moment and then tilted his head back again.

"It totally knocks me out. Back home, there's way too much ambient light and pollution to ever see the stars. Then all of a sudden, I get out here and I can see them so clearly." Jack paused at looked over at Ryan, his dark eyes flashing as they reflected the starlight. "Isn't that amazing, when you see something for the first time, even though it was there all along?"

Ryan looked up at the sky. "Yeah. I mean I guess so."

"So," Jack asked, "what do you think?"

Ryan squinted up at the sky a moment longer. "Um, I can't tell." He noticed his skin grow hot as he felt Jack's gaze on him and realized that he was the only one looking at the sky anymore. "I mean, I don't know the names of the constellations or anything." For some reason, Ryan felt like he had to keep talking.

"Except for, like, the Big Dipper, and you know, Orion…and the Little Dipper too, obviously…" he stammered. "But yeah, they're really pretty." He turned to face Jack, by now completely flushed. Jack was staring into Ryan's eyes in a way that Ryan found completely unnerving. "Yeah, they're…gorgeous," Jack muttered softly, and leaned forward a few inches to kiss Ryan on the lips.

Ryan wasn't sure what made him react the way he did. He could blame it on alcohol again, or the atmosphere, or just the fact that his heart was pumping like crazy and it was impossible to think straight. But this time, he knew that kissing Jack Kelly wasn't a mistake, and that he was definitely enjoying this. When Jack broke away, Ryan stared at him for a second, and then pulled Jack right back towards him for more.

This continued for what seemed like a lifetime until, suddenly, Ryan felt a sick twinge in his stomach. He pulled away and put a hand to his mouth.

"Hey, are you okay?" Jack asked, putting a hand on Ryan's arm.

"Uh, yeah, I'm fine." Ryan stood up far too quickly, and realized he was suddenly dizzy. Jack stood up and steadied him.

"You don't look so great. How much did you have?"

"Um, I don't know, I was playing beer pong with Sean."

"Holy shit, no wonder!" Jack laughed. "Listen, I'll walk you home."

"No, you really don't have to do that," Ryan mumbled, looking at the ground in his mortification.

Jack reached out and lightly raised Ryan's chin so they were eye-to-eye. "It's no problem."

They didn't talk during the walk back to Ryan's dorm, mostly because Ryan was too busy focusing on not throwing up and not thinking too hard about what just happened.

"Here we are," Jack murmured when they reached the door of Ryan's dorm, Larkin. Ryan had hardly noticed.

"Thanks a lot for walking back with me," Ryan said.

"Anytime," Jack smiled lightly.

Ryan wanted to say something else, but he wasn't sure what. "I think I dropped my eye patch somewhere back there," he blurted. "Um, you know, if you see it lying around or something…it's not a big deal though…you know…" Ryan felt like kicking himself. Ugh, what was in that alcohol?

"Sure thing," Jack grinned. Ryan couldn't help smiling back.

"OK, so…See you around," Ryan said.

"G'night." Jack turned and Ryan watched him walk away until he couldn't see him anymore before unlocking the dorm door.


	5. Chapter 5

In the morning, Ryan felt like crap, but he still couldn't help smiling. He kept imagining Jack's warm lips on his. Ryan wondered if this meant he was gay. Probably. But being with Jack really did feel right, he realized—more right than he'd ever felt about any girls.

Ryan was pondering this as he set down his tray on an empty table in his dorm dining hall while he waited for Michael and his regular group to finish getting their food. Ryan glanced towards the salad bar and was surprised to see Jack, with a tray full of food, heading straight towards his table.

"Hey Ryan, how's it going?" Jack asked, setting his tray down across from Ryan.

"Jack! What are you doing here?" Ryan exclaimed. Jack raised an eyebrow.

"Well, we have this thing called a meal plan where you have a certain number of meals per week that you can use at any of the seven campus dining halls," Jack replied slowly, but smiling. "So I like to mix it up. Plus, I'm still on the lookout for which dorm has the best Mexican food."

"Oh, ours sucks, unfortunately," Ryan replied, relaxing a little.

"Actually, I've heard of a couple good restaurants in town," Jack grinned. "We should go sometime."

"Oh! Uh, yeah!" Ryan replied, just as his friends sat down.

"Jack, this is David—" Ryan motioned towards a boy with curly brown hair who was Michael's roommate, "Michael—"

"Yeah, I think we met at the party last night," Michael responded, extending a hand towards Jack.

"And my roommate, Tony," Ryan finished. "Jack's in my Humanities section," he explained.

"Ugh, please, no talk about Humanities here, we're trying to eat!" Tony joked. Ryan smiled, feeling more at ease—though he still wondered what Jack was really doing here.

Dinner was fun, as Jack was perfectly outgoing and was talking with Ryan's friends as if they'd known each other forever in just a few minutes. Ryan didn't even realize they'd been there for over an hour until he glanced at his watch. "Whoa, it's already seven," he mumbled.

"Shit, it is?" Tony jumped up. "I've got to get to band practice, I'll see you guys later!"

"Yeah, I've got to go to," Michael agreed, rising from his chair. "David, you want to go check math problem set answers?"

"Sure," David nodded. "Nice meeting you, Jack."

"Yeah, you too," Jack said, standing.

Suddenly, Ryan didn't want Jack to go. "What are you doing right now?" he blurted out.

"Not much. Got something in mind?" Jack asked.

"Um, I was about to watch _Gattaca_—I borrowed it from the library—if you're interested," Ryan said. He hadn't really been planning to watch the movie tonight, since he still had a ton of chem to read, but that didn't seem so important right now.

"Sure," Jack agreed.

"Cool!" Ryan replied. He willed himself to be calm as they put their trays back and walked through the courtyard and then down the hall to Ryan's room. Ryan was suddenly very glad that Tony had left for band practice.

"Have you ever seen this before?" Ryan asked as he popped the DVD into his TV.

"Ah, like a dozen times," Jack laughed, settling himself across from the TV on Ryan's bed.

"Me too," Ryan smiled, sitting down next to Jack, willing himself to focus on the screen and not to stare at Jack on the bed next to him.

The movie had been playing for about four minutes when Ryan felt Jack's hand on his leg. That was all it took for Ryan, without thinking, to turn towards Jack and to kiss him lightly on the lips. Then Ryan hesitated, realizing that being sober, sitting on his bed, was a very different situation than being drunk outside of a party.

Jack didn't pause, though, before returning the kiss, slipping his tongue into Ryan's mouth. Ryan matched his intensity, and for once, he managed to silence his brain and just focus on Jack, here, now.

Ryan felt a tug on his t-shirt and then gasped when Jack broke the kiss—but smiled when he realized Jack was trying to pull of Ryan's shirt, which he happily helped him with before unbuttoning Jack's shirt and pushing it off his shoulders. Ryan captured Jack's mouth again and he shivered as he felt Jacks hands slide down his stomach towards the waistband of his jeans.

And suddenly, Ryan was loving college a whole lot more.


	6. Chapter 6

Next Tuesday morning, Ryan woke up smiling. Halfway through getting dressed, he realized he was in such a good mood because he was looking forward to seeing Jack in class that day. Ryan sped from chem lecture to Humanities in record time, arriving first in the empty lecture hall. A minute later, he recognized Jack's voice.

"Any chance this seat isn't taken?" Jack gestured towards the unoccupied row of seats next to Ryan. As he did, Ryan couldn't help admiring the way Jack's floppy hair fell over his eyes and his lazy smile crept across his face.

"You know, I just might be able to find space," Ryan grinned as Jack plopped down next to him and the lecture began.

"So I hear this midterm's going to be a bitch," Jack sighed.

"Uh-huh." Ryan barely registered the lecture starting in the front of the room. Jack was too distracting. Or rather, watching the curve of Jack's mouth as he talked, smiled, or chewed his pencil seemed much more important than actually listening to Professor McGowan. For the first time, Ryan felt as though the lecture was flying by.

As the professor concluded, and the students in the back row who had dozed off finally started to stir, Ryan turned to face Jack.

"So, what're you up to now?"

"Um, section, Ryan, just like always." Jack shot him a quizzical glance as the boys started making their way towards their section classroom.

"Right. So, uh, afterwards, do you want to grab lunch or something?" Ryan offered.

"Oh. Um, today might not be so good. See, I have this important, official meeting to go to right afterwards—a bunch of us got tapped to join a frat. You know, the brothers want to select the right people from the freshman class really early."

"Okay, well maybe another time." Ryan was pretty sure that his disappointment was evident in his voice as they reached the classroom.

"Totally." Jack slid into the last free seat near the door, and Ryan was forced to sit on the other side of the seminar room. Today, the class watched a movie, and with the overhead lights off Ryan wasn't able to monitor Jack's facial expressions the way he usually did.

An hour and a half later, after struggling unsuccessfully to prevent himself from nodding off, Ryan blinked and tried to stifle his yawn discreetly. His section leader didn't seem to notice that half the class was waking up, and just reminded the students to post their comments on the film on the online discussion forum. Great, Ryan thought, he'd have a ton to contribute after missing the entirety of the movie plus zoning out in lecture. Maybe he could ask Jack what had happened. Ryan glanced towards the door, where Jack was leaning against the doorframe waiting for someone, with his arms crossed and wearing is most dazzling smile. Ryan cheered up and felt his pace quicken as he maneuvered towards the exit, then froze in his tracks as he saw exactly what Jack had been waiting for.

"Okay, I'm finally ready!" The perky girl who had placed ninth in the gymnastics Olympic trials giggled and picked up her backpack. "I'll help you study, I mean whenever you're free, Jack."

"Great!" Jack replied warmly, slipping his arm around the girl's waist. "So are you doing anything now?"

Ryan watched them disappear around the corner, and then slowly shuffled out of the classroom.

* * *

Late that night, Ryan sat staring at his desk, willing his problem set to solve itself. Why should he be expected to put these matrices in reduced row echelon form by hand, when he knew he could do it on his calculator in two seconds? Seriously, sometimes the rationale of the math department's curriculum defied comprehension. And at midnight the night before the problem set was due, their requirements seemed particularly heinous.

An insistent knock at the door interrupted his progress—well, if you could call shredding his scratch paper and cursing his instructor progress—and Ryan got up to see who was there.

Ryan slid the door open, and saw Jack leaning casually in the doorframe in just the way he had done after Humanities section earlier that day.

"Hey," Jack muttered, peering inside Ryan's room, oblivious to the other boy's glowering face. "Is Tony around?"

"No, he's at the library all night cramming for his Latin exam. But what're you…"

"Excellent," Jack replied, a wicked grin spreading over his face. He shoved Ryan into his room and closed the door behind them. "Can you spare time for a little study break?" he murmured, backing Ryan towards his bed.

Ryan couldn't believe it, but he actually felt too angry with Jack to say yes. Instead, he clenched his fists and pushed Jack off him.

"What the hell was that today?"

"What?" Jack was obviously stunned to meet opposition.

"That girl. You told me you had some frat meeting to go to, then you wander off hanging all over her!" Ryan held his ground, swatting Jack's hand away as he reached for Ryan's jaw.

"I went to my meeting late." Jack smirked and reached over to finger the hem of Ryan's shirt. This time Ryan didn't pull away, but he maintained his icy stare. Jack just laughed at Ryan's reaction.

"I told you this midterm was going to be killer. Come on, how else was I supposed to get her to study with me?" Ryan supposed that Jack had a point there; he could feel his resistance melting.

"Besides," Jack continued, looking Ryan straight in the eye while continuing to pull his shirt further up, "I'm here now."

* * *

An hour later, Jack slipped out of Ryan's room, his hair tousled and his shirt on inside out. Ryan, unable to wipe a smile off his face, slipped on some pajamas and headed back to his homework in a considerably better mood. He picked up his pencil and flipped to the right page in his textbook, but found himself unable to concentrate. Ryan decided to procrastinate by checking his email, and found fourteen new messages since he'd last checked an hour ago—not an atypical number in college. Requests from his dormmates for laundry detergent, flyers promoting a tutoring volunteer program, an announcement that intramural sports were cancelled this weekend…nothing major. Ryan was about to log offline and give his problem set another shot when one email caught his eye. The subject line read, "New pledges—info session!" Ryan opened the email and scanned its contents. Stanford freshmen, come learn about Greek life on campus… First official meeting next Friday!… He read on—something about how university policy strictly forbade any one frat from soliciting members before another, and that this meeting marked the very first activity that freshmen were allowed to attend. Ryan pressed his laptop shut slowly and propped his elbows onto his desk with his hands clasped, a frown etched onto his face. 


	7. Chapter 7

Ryan didn't sleep well that night, worrying about whether he should confront Jack about lying. Jack could have just said that he wanted to study. Ryan still hadn't decided what to do the next morning, when he headed to the library to borrow a copy of the movie he had slept through in class so that he'd be able to do the assignment.

Ryan headed down to the media section in the basement of the library, but as he walked through the stacks he paused when he saw the back of a familiar head of brown hair. Jack seemed to be concentrating on a dusty old book that he was flipping through; Ryan chewed on his lip, unsure of whether he wanted to talk to Jack right now.

As if sensing Ryan's indecision, Jack looked up and saw Ryan staring at him. Ryan winced inwardly.

"Hey, man," Jack grinned.

"Hey," Ryan responded, a little nervously. Okay, this was going to be it, he was going to confront Jack—

"You like Mexican, right?" Jack said before Ryan could begin.

"Yeah," Ryan responded warily. "But listen—"

"Okay, Friday night, we're going," Jack grinned. "I know a place with really cheap margaritas that, like, never checks I.D.s."

Ryan was rendered temporarily speechless. Maybe he had been all wrong? He made a snap decision, not at all influenced by how good Jack looked with his hair falling into his eyes like that, to let it go—just this once. "Um, yeah!" Ryan agreed.

The rest of the week passed as usual. Ryan and Jack sat together in Humanities lecture, and when Jack flirted with the gymnast in section, Ryan just ignored him. After all, Jack had asked him out.

* * *

Friday night, Ryan stared limply into the mirror cursing his hair.

"What is your problem tonight, kid?" Tony finally growled from across the room.

"Nothing, I, uh—"

"You got a hot date or something?" Tony demanded. Ryan felt a faint blush creeping over his cheeks.

"Um…"

Just then, there was a knock. Ryan saw Tony's eyes dart towards the door, and before Ryan could stop him, Tony had dashed across the room to open it. Ryan winced.

"Why hello, Jack, how nice to see you!" Tony grinned broadly when he saw the other boy standing in the doorframe.

"Hey Tony, what's up?" Jack greeted him, with all his usual friendliness. "Ryan, you wanna go?"

"Yeah. See you later, Tony," Ryan muttered, grabbing his jacked.

"Oh, you most certainly will," Tony smirked. "You kids have fun!" he exclaimed before practically pushing Ryan out the door and slamming it.

Ryan took a breath, and looked at Jack, whose eyes were twinkling. At that moment, nothing else seemed very important.

* * *

Dinner was great—better than anything Ryan had had at college, for sure—and as they biked back to campus, Jack asked if Ryan wanted to hang out some more.

"Sure!" Ryan replied, jubilant. "But I think Tony might still be in the room—can we go to your dorm?"

"Nah, I've got a quad in Branner—I don't think you want three guys breathing down your neck." Ryan agreed.

When they got back to Ryan's room, Tony was sitting on his bed with Latin assignments spread out all around him. And he did not look pleased to see Ryan.

"Uh, hey Tony, do you think you'd mind, um…"

"Think I'd mind what, Ryan?" Leave it to Tony to make this difficult.

"Mind, you know…going somewhere else for a little while?"

"Why Ryan, whatever would compel me to go somewhere else? Seeing as this is my room, and all?"

Ryan sighed. "Uh…"

Jack took a step into the room and leveled his gaze at Tony. "What Ryan is trying to say is that you're being sexiled; because unless you want to watch me do unspeakable things to your roommate, or unless you'd like to join in, this might be a tad uncomfortable."

Ryan gaped, his expression mirroring Tony's own. But then Jack broke into one of his familiarly dazzling smiles, and Ryan couldn't help but laugh. Tony smirked.

"Ugh. Whatever, I'm going to the library. I'll leave you two crazy kids at it," Tony said, gathering his stuff and, finally, leaving them alone. Ryan waited all of about two seconds after the door closed before jumping Jack.


	8. Chapter 8

Next Tuesday as the boys left class together, Ryan reminded Jack that they'd never actually watched that movie together.

"Do you want to come over later and watch? Like around nine, maybe," Ryan suggested.

"Yeah, 'course I do. But wait…" Jack hesitated. "Won't your roommate be back from band practice by then?"

"Probably." Ryan shrugged. "Whatever. We can just hang out. It's fine."

"Yeah, hang out…" Jack trailed off distractedly. "Listen, I'll call you later to let you know what I'm up to tonight, I gotta run to the bike shop before my history class. See ya!"

* * *

Ryan gave up on Jack around 9:45 that night and decided he might as well do some homework. Even his chemistry problem set was more enjoyable than thinking about the fact that Jack hadn't called. Ryan put his disappointment out of his mind immediately, though, when Jack met him with his trademark, stunning grin outside the next Humanities lecture. The boys joked through class as usual, and afterwards they made plans to see a movie the following night. Ryan couldn't wait for Friday.

* * *

Heading to dinner the next night, Ryan took a shortcut from his last class to his dorm by walking through Meyer Library. As he pushed open the glass door, he spotted Jack laughing with someone over at the computer cluster. Ryan began walking over to say hi, and soon he was close enough to hear what Jack was saying.

"So this Moonsplash thing tonight is the best frat party of the year, huh?" Jack pretended to look deeply concerned as he spoke to a girl sitting next to him. "I couldn't possibly miss that, could I?" Ryan backed away from the computer cluster and left the library before Jack could notice him. He didn't feel like asking Jack whether he'd forgotten about going to the movies tonight. Probably it had honestly slipped his mind. At least, it was possible. Ryan didn't want to push it, in any case. He didn't think he could deal with Jack bailing on him again.

* * *

Ryan awoke at 3 a.m. to a pounding on his wall. He forced himself up and headed to his door groggily, rubbing his eyes with one hand. Was this another fire drill? Last week, they'd had one in the middle of the night, and everyone had had to file out of their rooms and wait outside shivering for a half-hour. Actually, the fire drill had been sort of amusing. Ryan was pretty sure that nobody in the dorm had expected to see his dorky R.A. walk out of his room hand in hand with a girl from the cheer squad. And he, for one, didn't anticipate that Michael wore Powerpuff Girls pajama pants to bed.

Ryan opened the door, one hand reaching for the jacket slung over his chair. Instead of his R.A., though, he found himself face-to-face with Jack, who sported his usual grin. Even though his eyes were still adjusting to the light of the hallway, Ryan could tell that Jack's eyes were bloodshot, and when Jack kissed him he tasted of beer.

"Jack," he muttered in between kisses, "what's going on?"

"What do you think's going on?" Jack whispered, leaning in again to capture Ryan's mouth with his own. Ryan wondered whether Jack was just trying to shut him up.

"You…you're sort of drunk. And today," Ryan continued, his indignation rising, "today you completely blew me off."

"What, we have to spend every second together? Wouldn't you rather see me now, anyway, for this?" Jack asked, slipping one finger just below the waistband of Ryan's pajamas. Ryan didn't reply.

"Aren't you going to let me in?" Jack asked impatiently.

Ryan remained silent, but pushed the door open behind him and let Jack inside. Jack looked around to make sure Tony's side of the room was empty before steering Ryan towards his bed.

"Good thing your roommate's such a workaholic."

Ryan could have explained that Tony wasn't studying, that he had found a girlfriend in the next dorm over. But he had an absurd feeling that if he tried to open his mouth to speak, he might cry. He pressed his lips against Jack's and told himself that maybe he should just think about what was going on right now, and forget talking. That certainly seemed to be what Jack wanted to do. And what Jack was starting to do did feel really, really good… Ryan suddenly found himself unable to think very clearly anymore.

* * *

Even though it was late and Jack still wasn't a hundred percent sober, he declined Ryan's invitation to sleep over afterwards.

"That was nice," Jack said, giving Ryan a quick peck on the lips before heading out the door.

As Ryan watched Jack leave, he tried to ignore the ache in the pit of his stomach.


	9. Chapter 9

It was four in the morning, but Ryan decided now was as good a time as any to take a shower. As the blistering-hot water pounded down his back, he wondered why he should feel so lousy right after having amazing sex. Ryan turned off the water and headed back to bed, but he couldn't sleep. He kept picturing Jack with that girl in the library, Jack with the gymnast from Section, Jack with pretty much everyone he knew.

When Ryan finally drifted off to sleep, the sun was coming up. Ryan slept fitfully, and dreamed that he was in Humanities section, naked, and without having done any of the reading. Even worse, Jack was there and was blatantly hitting on pretty much the entire class: the T.A., the gymnast girl, the kid with the thick glasses who actually wore a pocket protector. Then for some reason, Tony came in dressed as a giant hammer and talking about going to a Halloween party. And then suddenly, Jack and Tony were making out right on the seminar table, and everyone was just calmly watching as it got more and more steamy and…

Ryan woke up with a start. It took him a second to remember where he was and that the strange scenario that had just been played out was only a dream. He glanced at the digital clock next to his bed: 2:43 p.m. Dammit, his review session for the math midterm started at three, and he couldn't afford to miss it. Ryan scrambled out of bed, pulled on the first clothes he could find, and was out the door.

* * *

At the review session, Ryan's head was somehow clearer than it had been in weeks. He took furious notes, sped back to his dorm, and kept right on working, pouring his heart and soul into his studying.

Ryan didn't stop until he felt a pang in his stomach. Glancing at the clock, he realized it was almost eight and he hadn't eaten at all today. Ryan shut his book, grabbed his jacket, and headed down to the student union to grab some food, since all the dining halls were already closed. After a quesadilla and Coke, he felt better, and his thoughts drifted towards Jack again.

Jack, always charming and wonderful—but charming and wonderful with everyone else, too. Jack, who always had to make the rules, who made and broke plans only so far as they suited him, Jack who basically just took Ryan for granted. Ryan sighed.

Ugh, but who was he kidding? As angry as he was with Jack, he knew that whenever Jack snapped his fingers, Ryan couldn't help but come running. Ryan put his head in his hands, hating himself.

"Hey, Ryan, are you okay, dude?" a familiar voice asked. Ryan looked up into Michael's brown eyes, which were full of concern.

"Oh, yeah, I'm fine. Well, I'm not exactly fine, but I'm not, like, dying or anything," Ryan offered by way of explanation.

"Um, okay," Michael frowned. "Listen, I'm meeting some people here to work on a project, but if you wanna talk or hang out later or anything later, come by my room."

"Thanks, man," Ryan smiled grimly. "I'll see you later."

Ryan walked aimlessly back towards his dorm. Or at least, he thought he was walking towards his dorm. He didn't realize he was standing in front of Branner until he practically ran into the stone sign in front of it. Stupid. Ryan turned around and started to head back toward his own dorm, then stopped. Resolutely, he made a decision. It was time that Ryan started making some of the rules.

Ryan pounded on the front door of Branner until an irritated kid who'd been studying in the lounge let him in. Ryan raced up the stairs and down the hall to Jack's room. Gathering his courage, he knocked on the door.

"Just a second!" came a muffled voice from within. A few moments later, Jack opened the door, shirtless. His eyes widened when he saw Ryan. He quickly stepped out into the hall, closing the door behind him.

"What are you doing here?" Jack asked, pursing his lips. Ryan took a deep breath.

"Look, Jack, I think we need to talk. I mean, I really like you, and I like hanging out with you, but I feel like you never…"

Just then, there was a thud and then a muffled "Ow!" from inside the room. Ryan's eyes darted quickly towards the door, then back at Jack, who was raising an eyebrow as if daring Ryan to ask.

Ryan leveled his gaze at Jack. Suddenly, Jack pulled him in for a fierce kiss. For just a second, Ryan allowed himself to close his eyes and lose himself in Jack. But then he remembered why he was here.

Snaking his arm around Jack's waist, Ryan suddenly reached around him and turned the door handle. He pushed Jack off him, letting the boy stumble backwards at hit the door, which swung open. Ryan gaped as Jack fell backwards into the room.

David was standing naked in the middle of the room, leaning over a lamp that seemed to have fallen over. David stood up quickly, looking like a deer caught in headlights, then quickly grabbed a shirt that was crumpled on the floor to cover himself. Jack stood up slowly, glancing back and forth between Ryan and David only slightly sheepishly. And Ryan just gawked, unable to muster any words.

Ryan wanted to throw up, laugh, and cry all at the same time. Instead, he mustered his dignity, turned on his heel, and left without another word.

Ryan was halfway down the stairs by the time Jack caught up with him.

"Ryan, wait up," Jack called. Ryan stopped, curious to hear just what Jack thought he could say. Silently, he turned to icily stare Jack in the eye.

"Hey, sorry about that, but you really should have called first, or something," Jack explained. Ryan snorted. Was Jack seriously going to try to pass the blame off onto him?

"But, I mean, it's not like we're exclusive or anything. I mean, we have a lot of fun together, but I'm not exactly a boyfriend-kind of guy," Jack finished, shooting Ryan his best trademark grin. Ryan blinked.

"Yeah, Jack. I think you've made that pretty clear." Ryan turned and kept going down the stairs.

"Hey, wait," Jack was right behind him. Reaching out, he grabbed Ryan's arm and started to pull him in close. "Are we cool here?"

"You know what Jack?" Ryan retorted, pulling his arm out of Jack's grasp. "I don't think it matters any more." Ryan stared for one moment more into Jack's surprised eyes before crossing the foyer, pushing open the door, and stepping out into the brisk November night.

* * *

A/N: That's it! Thanks, everyone, for reading and reviewing our first foray into fic-writing. We hope to write again soon!  



End file.
